Hey Sungy – It’s Your Birthday! Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake Recipe

Nov 17

Nov17

38 years of Chinese sweet crazy lady livin’ on this planet, guys. I turned 38 over the weekend and destiny called: the universe told me I had to make the most epic peanut butter chocolate cake recipe I could possibly muster. How could I say no!? Peanut butter and chocolate is my deadly kryptonite, sparkling green-bright, cartoon pain crystals on another planet waiting to take me down. I wanted creamy salty sweet peanut butter frosting, rich dark chocolate cake layers and I wanted to STUFF this muthah with peanut butter cups. Then, I looked to my fave cake sistah from another mistah, Katherine Sabbath, for design inspiration – drips, shards and sweet little brightly coloured meringue kisses!

For the chocolate cake, I wanted to try something different from my usual recipe. Years ago my mother-in-law gave me The Barefoot Contessa At Home. How LOVEABLE is Ina Garten! Like a warm hug on a cold day, I used to cozy up to her show, dreaming of having a big gorgeous house with a bright and fancy kitchen. I found it so soothing and relaxing to watch. Ina and Jeffrey = dream team! I like to imagine them cuddling the shit out of each other on a perfectly comfy taupe couch while dining on crisp roast capon. I’d forgotten about Ina’s Beatty’s Chocolate Cake Recipe until I came across it again on The Vanilla Bean Blog while searching for recipes. It did not fail me. The texture was so tender and springy I wanted to punch the air in CAKE VICTORY. The layers were deeply chocolate with a hint of coffee flavour.

Another year older – another year cram jammed full of life. So here it is: the motherload of cakes, the cake my husband told me “I think this might be the best cake you’ve ever made” … a little something for you all. Let’s celebrate!!! With this peanut butter chocolate cake recipe and a lifetime hashtag of #muffintop4evah.

Make The Cake

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.

In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Make The Frosting

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and peanut butter on high speed for 1 minute.

Scraping down the sides of the bowl, add the icing sugar, vanilla and dash of milk, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Remove the first cake layer from the cake pan and place on a cake plate or pedestal. Frost generously with peanut butter frosting. Read here for how to frost a cake.

Add one half of the chopped peanut butter cups on top of the frosting, pressing down into the frosting.

Add the second layer, frost, fill with peanut butter cups.

Add the final layer of cake, frosting the top and sides to a crumb coat.

Chill in freezer for ten minutes to set crumb coat.

Frost a final coat of peanut butter frosting and set aside.

Make The Glaze

Using a bain-marie or heatproof bowl set on top of boiling water, melt together the butter and chocolate.

Mix together slowly with a wooden spoon.

Set aside to cool for 20 minutes; it will thicken slightly. Pour on top of peanut butter frosting covered cake, using an offset spatula to gently ice the glaze to the edges of the cake for maximum dripping.

Oh drippy glaze. You kill me with your beautiful drips every time. Use an offset spatula to gently spread it out to the edges.

Let it be, drips! Let it BE!

Then top with the cutest stuff ever, such as meringue kisses in bright and smurfy colours, and dark chocolate shards covered in sprinkles. Don’t worry, I have a meringue kisses tutorial coming up real soon on Coco Cake Land!

Ahhhh … all the hard cake making work was worth it … especially when my SISTER showed up with her own aqua ombré cake she made based on my own tutorials… CUTE! And my husband surprised me with my favourite cake – Dairy Queen ice cream cake with Garfield. Ha! Oh man I was spoiled. It was a very happy moment for me.

And … finally … a slice of this dark and delicious beauty of a beast. I had a pretty fantastic birthday. I’ll miss being 37, but I’ve gotta accept 38 because it’s here – just like I have to accept every year I turn another year older. Every year I think I do get both a little wiser and a little stupider. Some memories slip away while newer ones are being made. Another year of experiences or hardships or sweet moments – I store them all in my head like a teen diary. I try to laugh every day, eat something I like, and get as many hugs as I can out of my two year old son. I try to connect with friends, make sure my family knows I love them and learn just a little something new. That’s all I’ve got for you, at 38, guys! That, and I guess this crazy good peanut butter chocolate cake recipe too. xo Lyndsay

lady, it sounds like you had a wonderful birthday!!! and dat cake!! SWOON.
i absolutely love the pic of you and your fam and your three cakes. so, so sweet :)
cheers to 38 bringing you even more joy in life!!!!
xoxo

Happy belated birthday, Lyndsay!!! I love you so much –> “I wanted to punch the air in CAKE VICTORY” “I like to imagine them cuddling the shit out of each other on a perfectly comfy taupe couch while dining on crisp roast capon”. Damn, you’re hilarious. You make me laugh all the time by your brilliant, witty, fabulous kookiness. Please don’t ever change. And lady, you deserve those three cakes (I love the look of pure unadultered glee on your face). This PB cake is absolutely glorious – it’s gorgeous and you can’t get any better than chocolate ‘n PB. I hope you enjoyed every sweet, decadent bite!

nancy!!! you and maybe 2.7 other people find my writing funny and actually read my posts, and for this, i thank you … and it’s why i keep on blogging sometimes, finding little gem comments like yours!! xo

gyozagirleats

Nov 18, 2014

that cake was as you say amazeballs!! soooo gorgeous and cute at the same time and yes rt might be right in saying the best cake yet! love this post. you are the best writer. always have been! happy 38th birthday lil sis! xo

janice

Nov 19, 2014

Oh man! Happy belated bday, you spring chicken! I feel like I never have time to read blogs, never mind comment…but oh man, what a cake!!! Mouth-watering looking and reading!! Ina’s one of my go-to’s, too! What are you going to dream up at 38, cake queen Lyndsay?!? Will check back to see! X

Happy belated birthday, lovely lady! Here’s to many more years of you coming up with fabulous cakey creations. I love the shapes and textures on this one – those shard pieces are like sails, mountains – and they’re fantastic! x

Aw thanks! Hey that’s a good question – the coffee is what makes the chocolate flavour really shine – I haven’t tried this exact recipe with only the buttermilk but you should give it a try and let me know what happens!! You might need to add a little more liquid to make up for the hot coffee – I’d add it in small increments of 1/4 cup (but don’t overmix the batter!)

Stephanie

Feb 4, 2015

You are so talented! How did you make the drip so picturesque? I feel like if it’s dripping on all sides at the same time, it would fall too quickly on one side etc and the white background would get smudged… but if you did one drip at a time, then the chocolate might set and become resistant to movement…

that is an excellent question. the drip is neither too thick nor too runny – follow the recipe exactly as noted and it should be the same consistency! let it cool enough to still have movement but not too thick… i use a cake turntable to both turn the cake slowly and use an offset spatula at the same time to coax the chocolate from the center to the sides of the cake then dripping down … good luck and thanks for the question!

[…] I then give full credit to two of my favorite cake bakers/decorators – Katherine Sabbath and Cococakeland for the inspiration behind the chocolate glaze and striped pink/blue meringues that topped off […]

[…] has been on my bake list (a real list, that only gets longer) for months. Lyndsay Sung’s peanut butter chocolate cake on Coco Cake Land is, without a doubt, the most beautiful cake I have ever made. Light, moist, rich […]

[…] has been on my bake list (a real list, that only gets longer) for months. Lyndsay Sung’s peanut butter chocolate cake on Coco Cake Land is, without a doubt, the most beautiful cake I have ever made. Light, moist, […]